Millions of people in the United States and globally suffer from inflammatory diseases. Inflammation is the body's response to harmful stimuli, and when limited, is beneficial and helps the body heal. However, when inflammation is unchecked it can lead to tissue destruction, necrosis, and fibrosis. Similarly, autoimmune responses to a body's own cells and organs develop into rampant inflammation, destroying skin and joints in psoriasis, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis, and insulin-producing beta cells in Type 1 diabetes. Microbial and metabolic inflammation leads to insulin resistance, which underlies Type 2 diabetes. Thus, one can distinguish conceptually between microbial inflammation as the mechanism of diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, and fungi, and autoimmune inflammation as the mechanism of diseases caused by emergence of autoreactive T and B lymphocytes and autoantibodies, and metabolic inflammation as the mechanism of diseases caused by excessive accumulation of metabolites (e.g. cholesterol esters, uric acid) due to inborn or acquired metabolic dysfunction. Chronic microbial inflammation caused by the oral microbiome of periodontitis, and bronchitis contribute to coronary heart disease while Hepatitis C virus infecting 200 million people worldwide contributes to fatty liver (steatosis), cirrhosis and, ultimately liver cancer (Jousilahti P, Salomaa V, Rasi V, Vahtera E. Symptoms of chronic bronchitis, haemostatic factors, and coronary heart disease risk. Atherosclerosis. 1999; 142(2):403-7. Epub 1999/02/25. PubMed PMID: 10030392; Khan M, Jahan S, Khaliq S, Ijaz B, Ahmad W, Samreen B, Hassan S. Interaction of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) core with cellular genes in the development of HCV-induced steatosis. Archives of virology. 2010; 155(11):1735-53. Epub 2010/09/16. doi: 10.1007/s00705-010-0797-7. PubMed PMID: 20842391.). These three distinct forms of inflammation (microbial, autoimmune, and metabolic) evolve from the innate immune response vested in Toll-like receptors (TLRs) that sense microbial and metabolic products and act in combination with one or more intracellular adaptors that belong to the MyD88 family (O'Neill L A, Bowie A G. The family of five: TIR-domain-containing adaptors in Toll-like receptor signalling. Nature reviews Immunology. 2007; 7(5):353-64. Epub 2007/04/26. doi: 10.1038/nri2079. PubMed PMID:17457343.) to mobilize signal transducers. Intracellular signaling complexes are formed to dispatch stress-responsive transcription factors (SRTFs) to the nucleus (Hawiger J. Innate immunity and inflammation: a transcriptional paradigm. Immunologic research. 2001; 23(2-3):99-109. Epub 2001/07/11. doi: 10.1385/IR:23:2-3:099. PubMed PMID: 11444396.), a process carried out by nuclear transport adaptors (“shuttles”), importins/karyopherins alpha and beta (importins a and β). The genomic response to proinflammatory insults is regulated by SRTFs, either alone or in various combinations (Hawiger J. Innate immunity and inflammation: a transcriptional paradigm. Immunologic research. 2001; 23(2-3):99-109. Epub 2001/07/11. doi: 10.1385/IR:23:2-3:099. PubMed PMID: 11444396.). Several key SRTFs, such as nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB), activator protein 1 (AP-1), nuclear factor of activated T-cells (NFAT) and signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1), contain one or more unique nuclear localization sequences (NLSs) arranged as monopartite or bipartite motifs consisting of short sequences of basic residues (lysine and arginine) flanked by proline, valine or other non-polar amino acids that bind to importins a following cell activation (Weis K. Regulating access to the genome: nucleocytoplasmic transport throughout the cell cycle. Cell. 2003; 112(4):441-51. Epub 2003/02/26. PubMed PMID: 12600309). These SRTFs in particular have been shown to play roles in immunity and inflammation and their dysregulation has been demonstrated in many autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) (Gomez-Martin D, Diaz-Zamudio M, Crispin J C, Alcocer-Varela J. Interleukin 2 and systemic lupuserythematosus: beyond the transcriptional regulatory net abnormalities. Autoimmunity reviews. 2009; 9(1):34-9. Epub 2009 Mar. 10. doi: 10.1016/j.autrev.2009.02.035. PubMed PMID: 19269352.). Importins a form heterodimers with importin β to facilitate docking to nuclear pores and ferry the SRTF cargo to the nucleus. Once inside the nucleus, transcription factors (TFs) are freed to bind their cognate promoters and initiate gene transcription, leading to genome reprogramming from a resting to activated state (Hawiger J. Innate immunity and inflammation: a transcriptional paradigm. Immunologic research. 2001; 23(2-3):99-109. Epub 2001 Jul. 11. doi: 10.1385/IR:23:2-3:099. PubMed PMID: 11444396.). A plethora of genes that encode inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, signal transducers (cyclooxygenase, nitric oxide synthase), and cell adhesion molecules are activated. This “genomic storm” raises blood levels of cytokines and chemokines and mobilizes expression of other mediators (Xiao W, Mindrinos M N, Seok J, Cuschieri J, Cuenca A G, Gao H, Hayden D L, Hennessy L, et al. A genomic storm in critically injured humans. The Journal of experimental medicine. 2011; 208(13):2581-90. Epub 2011/11/24. doi: 10.1084/jem.20111354. PubMed PMID: 22110166; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3244029). Importin β can also bind and transport some TFs independently, without forming dimers with importins a (Lee S J, Sekimoto T, Yamashita E, Nagoshi E, Nakagawa A, Imamoto N, Yoshimura M, Sakai H, et al. The structure of importin-beta bound to SREBP-2: nuclear import of a transcription factor. Science. 2003; 302(5650):1571-5. Epub 2003/12/03. doi: 10.1126/science.1088372. PubMed PMID: 14645851.). Sterol Response Element-Binding Proteins (SREBPs), the master regulators of cholesterol, triglyceride, and fatty acid homeostasis, lack a classic NLS. Sterol deprivation sensed by their “rheostat” SREBP cleavage activating protein (SCAP) induces cells to cleave SREBPs, releasing an amino-terminal domain (nSREBP) that is translocated to the nucleus by association of the basic-helix-loop-helix leucine zipper (bHLH-Zip) region homodimer with importin β (Lee S J, Sekimoto T, Yamashita E, Nagoshi E, Nakagawa A, Imamoto N, Yoshimura M, Sakai H, et al. The structure of importin-beta bound to SREBP-2: nuclear import of a transcription factor. Science. 2003; 302(5650):1571-5. Epub 2003 Dec. 3. doi: 10.1126/science. 1088372. PubMed PMID: 14645851; Horton J D, Goldstein J L, Brown M S. SREBPs: activators of the complete program of cholesterol and fatty acid synthesis in the liver. The Journal of clinical investigation. 2002; 109(9):1125-31. Epub 2002 May 8. doi:10.1172/JCI15593. PubMed PMID: 11994399; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC150968).
Many inflammatory diseases are not adequately treated using conventional therapeutics. Steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (e.g., hydrocortisone, prednisone, and methylprednisolone) have significant side effects increasing blood glucose, blood lipids and body fat distribution, skin thinning and delayed wound healing, muscle weakness, increased susceptibility to infections, cataract, increased in eye pressure, stomach ulcers, and psychiatric disturbances. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (e.g., aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, celebrex) may cause fluid retention leading to edema, kidney failure (primarily with chronic use), liver failure, ulcers and prolonged bleeding after an injury or surgery. Accordingly, anti-inflammatory therapeutics that are effective and that do not cause such side effects are greatly needed.